Foundations

Foundation V.1 By Rickard

Long before the first legion arrived there was an ancient advanced civilization here. They built the original harvesters which drew Magic from the depths of the Atlas Mine. No one knows where they've gone or how they were destroyed. Some relics remain of their civilisation along with relics left by those who have stumbled through portals over the years and found themselves marooned here.

Portal events are the spontaneous appearance of a portal, which drop something from a different world/universe/dimension etc into Bridgeworld. They occur with varying frequency and of varying scale. Living creatures who come to Bridgeworld through portal events lose their memories and identity, they become forced to survive with the instincts and skills that they have. This results in a chaotic ecosystem of constant flux but more than that it also means intelligent life could have arrived in Bridgeworld long before the first legions.

A cataclysmic event in the past nearly tore the continent in half this caused the Atlas Rift. It’s unknown if the harvesters were built before or after the event spawning the rift and therefore no one knows if the harvesters were the cause or whether they were the response to the event.

A few months up to about a year before the first moments of the game take place there was a widespread portal event which brought many Genesis Legions to Bridgeworld. Individual legions like the five Origin Legions are said to have arrived much earlier and soon after the All-Class Legions appeared. No known portal event has ever been as widespread as the incident which brought the majority of the genesis legions to Bridgeworld.

Prior to the first moments of the game, a population of thousands of Legions exist on Bridgeworld. These Genesis Legions built the foundation of a city from scrap metal and Dragon wood. They centered the city around the crafting hub also known as The Forge. The Forge was a natural location to settle given the access to ancient tools and materials which had long since been abandoned. The dangers of Bridgeworld are many given that any predator from any universe could spontaneously appear through a portal event. The Ivory Tower, a watchtower overlooking vast areas of the known parts of Bridgeworld, house the Dispatcher. A being of an unknown race who has thus far guided the early Legions by sending them on missions to secure their own future. When the tower fell from the sky, during a portal event long ago, it speared deeply into the earth granting access to some of the lowest levels of the Atlas mine. An endless series of tunnels snaking all throughout Bridgeworld with thousands of entrances and levels. The tower sits between the crafting hub and the Atlas Rift.

Early investigations of the harvesters have indicated that some of the ancient machinery could be repaired and utilized to extract magic at a very rapid pace. The intricacy and the delicate nature of the parts necessary to repair the harvesters mean greatly experienced crafters and metalworkers are required, something which there is a great shortage of.

There are ongoing investigations regarding the center of the Atlas rift but the magic emanating from the center is far too intense for any Legion to go anywhere near. Even miles away it can become overwhelming however if you approach from underground the forceful magic emanations are lessened but not eliminated.

The magic which is being extracted from the Atlas rift is imbued with primarily six different powers: fire, earth, water, wind, light and darkness. This suggests that each of the harvesters were built specifically to extract magic from one of these elements. Magic, it seems, can be fused with other elements as well: toxic magic with its greenish glow, blood imbued magic with its deep red color, and magmatic magic a deep orange slow flowing liquid, to name a few.

The first moment of the game take place after the first successful summoning of a new Legion.

But with the discovery of the rituals needed to summon new Legions, a massive ethical debate arose given that the newly summoned have no recollection of their past: they do not know what they left behind or what they lost. At the same time there is so much danger and work that needs to be done on Bridgeworld that the summoning of new legions is a necessity if the current population wish to survive.

Those who refuse to accept the idea of having lost their identity and memories of a past which they will never recall sought solace in the end. Venturing up the mountains that frame the Western Borders of Bridgeworld, they constructed for themselves a sacrificial altar: a beautiful stone monument set atop a mountain overlooking Bridgeworld. There, torn between the understanding that they are needed for the survival of their new world and the resentment of losing their old, they find solace in knowing they need not belong to either and so spill their blood. A blood brimming with power...